The word Purana names that which, even as it grows ancient, stays new. These are the texts that took the deep matters of the Veda, cast them as story, and carried them into every household. Tradition holds that Vyasa compiled the Puranas, and that his student Romaharshana, along with Romaharshana’s son Ugrashrava, known as Suta, recited them to the assembled sages in the forest of Naimisharanya. From that gathering they moved onward, told and retold, until they reached us.
What makes a Purana
By the ancient definition, a Purana must carry five things, together called the panchalakshana, the five marks. Sarga, the making of the world; pratisarga, its dissolution and its remaking; vamsha, the lineage of the gods and the sages; manvantara, the ages of the Manus; and vamshanucharita, the chronicles of kings. The great Puranas hold all five, and it is among these five that the stories run, the stories for which people read them most of all.
The Eighteen Mahapuranas
The Mahapuranas are counted as eighteen. Tradition sorts them by the three gunas, according to which deity’s glory stands foremost. In the sattvika Puranas the glory of Vishnu usually leads, in the rajasa that of Brahma, and in the tamasa that of Shiva. Below are the three classes, each with the verse count that tradition assigns. These figures are the ideal ones; the manuscripts differ a little among themselves.
Sattvika (Vishnu-predominant)
- Vishnu Purana (about 23,000 shlokas): creation across its six portions, the stories of Dhruva and Prahlada, and at the close the life of Krishna.
- Bhagavata Purana (about 18,000): twelve skandhas, whose heart is the tenth, the lila of Krishna.
- Narada Purana (about 25,000): an unfolding of bhakti and of vows and pilgrimages.
- Garuda Purana (about 19,000): an account of the soul’s course after death and of the shraddha rites.
- Padma Purana (about 55,000): from its Srishti-khanda, the book of creation, out to the glories of many holy places.
- Varaha Purana (about 24,000): in the setting of the Varaha avatar, the earth and its vows.
Rajasa (Brahma-predominant)
- Brahma Purana (about 10,000): creation and many holy places, above all Utkala and Konark.
- Brahmanda Purana (about 12,000): the unfolding of the cosmos; the Lalita Sahasranama comes from this one.
- Brahmavaivarta Purana (about 18,000): books devoted to Ganesha and to Krishna, the lila of Radha and Krishna.
- Markandeya Purana (about 9,000): the frame-story told by the birds and the tale of Harishchandra; the Devi Mahatmya lies within it.
- Bhavishya Purana (about 14,500): vows, the worship of the sun, and matters of things to come.
- Vamana Purana (about 10,000): in the setting of the Vamana avatar, and stories of Shiva and Parvati as well.
Tamasa (Shiva-predominant)
- Shiva Purana (about 24,000): divided into samhitas, with Sati and Parvati, Kartikeya and Ganesha, and the twelve Jyotirlingas.
- Linga Purana (about 11,000): the glory of the Shivalinga, and creation.
- Skanda Purana (about 81,000): the largest of all; in the setting of Kartikeya, the glories of countless holy places, among them Kashi and Setu.
- Agni Purana (about 15,000): a Purana much like an encyclopedia, a gathering of many branches of knowledge.
- Matsya Purana (about 14,000): in the setting of the Matsya avatar, the great dissolution and the lineages.
- Kurma Purana (about 17,000): in the setting of the Kurma avatar, the Ishvara-Gita and the Vyasa-Gita.
The Puranas in this library
The world of the Puranas is like an ocean, and we are drawing selected stories from it, told in the form of story, bringing them here little by little. What you can read so far:
- Stories from the Bhagavata, a chosen handful of tales, from Dhruva and Prahlada to the lila of Krishna.
- Devi Mahatmya, the part of the Markandeya Purana that holds the three accounts of the Goddess.
- Harivamsha, the appendix parva of the Mahabharata, regarded as a Purana-like telling of the life of Krishna.
- The 32 stories of the Shiva Purana are now ready to read.
In time the Vishnu Purana and the remaining stories of the Markandeya will arrive in the same order.